Cause-Related Marketing: Factors Promoting Campaign Evaluations

Abstract

Advertisers have long been interested in the persuasiveness of cause-related marketing (CRM) campaigns, and the authors extend this stream of research using two separate experiments that considers the effectiveness of the company's product versus cash donations. Findings from Study 1 indicate consumers perceive sponsoring companies of CRM campaigns less favorably when these companies make product rather than cash donations to their nonprofit CRM partners, and the level of consumer participation effort required in these campaigns does not moderate this effect. However, Study 2 introduces congruency as a potential explanation for these adverse effects and extends Study 1 by demonstrating that more (as compared to less) congruent product donations can eliminate the negative effects of product donations. Further, it confirms prior findings concerning the importance of sponsoring company–cause congruency. Campaigns designed with higher levels of both types of congruency (product donation–cause and company–cause) promote favorable campaign outcomes. Further, both studies demonstrate that the effects of product donations on campaign outcomes are mediated by company motive. Implications for advertising theorists and practitioners are offered.

Acknowledgments

This article was accepted by Claude Martin and James Leigh, previous editors of the Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising.

Notes

¹To improve the ecological validity of the study, it was important to use an existing brand. Subjects were presented with the names of four pizza brands currently offered in the marketplace and asked to rate them on familiarity and likeability. The Tony's Pizza brand was chosen because both scores of familiarity (M = 5.36) and likeability (M = 4.33) fell around the median, thus allowing for greater variability.

²Prior brand attitude (coefficient α = .92) was used as a covariate in all analyses from here forward in Study 1.

³We also measured company effort as a potential confound of company donation type; it is possible that companies that donate products are perceived as being more effortful due to distribution costs. Results confirmed that company donation type differed only in type and not in effort. Cash and product donations were perceived to be similar in terms of the company's effort, further supporting the successful manipulation of company donation type. Also, company donation type did not interact with consumer participation effort (p > .05) and there was no main effect of company donation type (p > .05) on the consumer participation effort manipulation check measure.

^a p < .001.

^b p < .01.

^c p < .05.

^d p < .10.

⁴To establish the exact number of more and less congruent products donated by a more and less congruent company that would equal a $10 cash donation, four additional open-ended questions were asked. The goal was to ensure that the donation congruency manipulation was not confounded with amount, and we needed to take into account that consumers might perceive a more congruent donation (notebooks) to be a less costly contribution for a school supply company (since it buys these products in bulk at lower prices) than for a pizza company (and vice versa). The first question asked the number of mini pizzas the school supply company would need to donate to equal its $10 cash donation. The second question asked the number of spiral-bound notebooks the school supply company would need to donate to equal that cash donation. The same two questions were asked about the pizza company donation. Based on mode values, the more congruent company (school supply) could equal its $10 cash donation with 12 notebooks (more congruent donation) or 5 mini-pizzas (less congruent donation), and the less congruent company (pizza company) could equal its $10 cash donation with 8 notebooks (more congruent donation) or 10 mini-pizzas (less congruent donation). Thus, these numbers were used in the manipulations, and manipulation checks in the main study, confirm the success of the donation congruency manipulation.

⁵We also conducted an additional pretest to ensure that the product donations, while differing in congruency, did not differ in perceived dollar amount of financial donation. Participants in each of the three donation congruency conditions (more congruent, less congruent, and cash) completed a three-item, 7-point scale. Subjects were asked to complete “I consider the donation amount Kelly's will give to education to be:” (a low amount/a high amount, a small donation/a large donation, and not a sizeable donation/a sizeable donation). The pretest findings verified that all combinations of company congruency/product congruency were similar in terms of amount (p > .10). This pretest further supported that the manipulations were of donation congruency and not of different amounts of financial donations.